Monday Miscellany: Some Odds, Ends and Personals . . .

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Landing in Anzac Cove at Gallipoli, 1915

From Arthur in respect of the Gallipoli pics:

Otto

You should go there and see it in person it’s mind boggling how they even got up the hills by building tunnels and see how young these soldiers were. Enjoy the day Yiasou 

Arthur

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From Leo, a comment on the visit to Ayres Rock by Royals William and Kate:

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Some Monday items:

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Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's child is full of grace,

Wednesday's child is full of woe,

Thursday's child has far to go,

Friday's child is loving and giving,

Saturday's child works hard for a living,

But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day

Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.

- Oxford Book of Children’s Verse, first recorded 1838 

(I checked my birth date and found it was a Monday, not the Sabbath).

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“I Don’t Like Mondays” is a 1979 song by Bob Geldorf, father of the late Peaches Geldorf, and his group the Boomtown Rats. It hit No 1 in the UK.

The name of the song comes from a news report on a 1979 school shooting by 16 year old student Brenda Ann Spencer at an elementary school in San Diego.

Firing at children in the playground using a rifle that had been given to her by her father, she killed two adults (the principal and a custodian, who were trying to protect the children) and injured 8 children and a police officer. The school was located across the street from her home. She expressed no remorse.  On being asked why she had done it, she said “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.” During the 6 hour siege, according to negotiators, she made other comments equally shocking: 

“There was no reason for it, it was just a lot of fun.”

“It was just like shooting ducks in a pond.”

“[The children] looked like a herd of cows standing around, it was really easy pickings.”

Spencer was sentenced to 25 years to life in 1980.

BTW:

• Spencer was denied parole in 1993, 2001, 2005 and 2009. She will next be eligible for parole in 2019. Murderers are rarely granted parole in California. 

• As to the origin of the band name, the Boomtown Rats changed their name at the time of their first gig. Having been booked under the name "The Nightlife Thugs," the group agreed on the name change when Garry Roberts threatened to resign if they were called that. It was changed to the "Boomtown Rats" after a gang of children that Geldof had read about in Woody Guthrie’s's autobiography, Bound for Glory.

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